Tag Archives: garlic

I have this mission every night when I’m cooking dinner. Well, most nights. Ok, just lately.

The mission is called “no vegetable left behind.” That is, I try to use (within reason) as many different vegetables that are likely to taste good together in every dish. And so far, I haven’t found many that don’t go too well together.

Tonight I made a healthy and easy (yes, we like those two words used together), AND delicious (I sealed the deal for you right there) stir fry bowl. While I didn’t serve it with any carb, you are free to eat this whatever way you would like (without judgement).

The best part of this delicious bowl is that it is filled with fresh ingredients that are filling and great for promoting a taught tummy. (but, you don’t have to take my word for it – go ahead, Google it).

STEPS
1. Heat olive oil in large sauté pan over medium heat until heated. Add garlic, onions, peppers and jalapeños and sauté over medium heat until browned.
2. Add greens (a lot of greens, it amazingly cooks down very quickly). Sauté greens with the onion, pepper mixture until it just starts to wilt. Add soy sauce and fresh grated ginger. Stir. Add lime juice. Stir.
3. Add shrimp to pan and toss with ingredients. Cook for several more minutes, or until shrimp has turned pink and greens have cooked down and wilted.
4. Scoop into bowl and top with sliced avocado, toasted almonds and cilantro.

Delicious and easy chicken enchiladas made with a quick indian madras curry sauce

Is there really any reason to mess with the nearly perfect foods of Madras Indian curry or chicken enchiladas? In and of themselves they are quite delicious lil meals, however, I like to mix things up and it was high time these got a remix of their very own. Queue Bollywood/Mariachi mashup song.

I love cooking curries, both of the Thai and Indian variety. Frequent trips to the spice and ethnic grocery stores in our area make this an easy feat to accomplish. I think a lot of people believe curries are difficult to make, but I have found them quite the contrary, especially Thai curries which I have a habit of making far too often.

Recently I learned just how easy it is to make your own homemade enchilada sauce from Mr. Emeril Lagasse. You can find his recipe here. I couldn’t believe how flippin’ simple and quick it was! Seriously so simple and tastes way better than anything you will get in a can. After mastering my homemade enchilada sauce I got to thinking how great curried enchiladas would be. I have never had them before, but I like curry and I like enchiladas. Sounded like a match made in heaven. We have had a tin of Madras Indian Curry powder in our cupboard for some time and it seems we have still barely made a dent in it (it’s a large tin), although I assure you we use it in our cooking quite often.

The tin looks like this.

This is the Madras Curry Powder we use

This Madras Curry Powder has the following ingredients in it: coriander, turmeric, salt, fennel, chili, black pepper, fenugreek, garlic, cumin, bay leaf, ginger, cassia. This curry powder had a good mix of all the spices so I didn’t feel the need to add too much to it. You can play around with other curry blends if you want such as vindaloo or garam masala.

I have to say that this dish turned out amazing with just the right amount of curry flavor and spice. While it may take a little longer to assemble than most people are used to spending on a weeknight meal, I believe you could make a pan or two of this on a weekend and freeze one for when you need it. The thing that takes the longest to cook is the shredded chicken, which cooks in about half hour. You will notice that I didn’t actually roll my enchiladas in this recipe, that was due to my flub of not taking the frozen corn tortillas out of the freezer to thaw prior to starting to cook. Instead I layered the ingredients which made it quicker to assemble and tastes the same as the rolled ones in the end. For the veggies in this recipe I used carrots, peas and fresh chopped spinach, but I encourage you to play around with the veggies you have in your fridge as I am sure they will taste fantastic in this dish.

Now let’s get to messing with the enchiladas, shall we? Or is it messing with the curry?

Steps

1. Prep all ingredients above so they are ready to begin cooking. Preheat oven to 375°

2. Place chicken in a pot and fill with water to cover by a few inches. Put on stove top on High heat. Cook for about 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through and is easy to shred with 2 forks.

3. While chicken is cooking, start on the Madras Curry enchilada sauce. Heat vegetable oil in a medium sized saucepan on Medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until tender (they turn a bit translucent). Turn down heat to LOW. (This is very important because you don’t want to burn your flour in the next step)

4. After you have turned heat on onion, garlic mixture to LOW and it has a minute or two to adjust temperature, add in the flour and stir. Cook for 1 minute. (Note: Be sure NOT to burn your flour in this step.) Add in the curry powder and stir. Cook for another 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth and tomato paste and stir until combined. Cook on low until sauce reduces and thickens; about 15 minutes.

5. While curry sauce and chicken are cooking, start on the vegetable blend. Add extra virgin olive oil to a saute pan and heat on Medium heat. Add carrots and cook for several minutes until tender. Add the frozen peas and grated ginger and cook another minute until peas are defrosted. Add chopped spinach and cook until it wilts and moisture is cooked off. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper.

6. Once chicken is cooked through and it easily shreds, pull it out of cooking water and onto a cutting board. Using two forks, shred all of the chicken. Retain about 1/2 cup of the cooking water in the sauce pan, drain rest off. Add the shredded chicken back into pan with remaining water. Add 1/2 cup of the curry sauce to chicken and combine. Cook on Low a few minutes for chicken to season in the sauce mixture.

7. Add a ladle or two of the curry sauce to the bottom of the 9″ x 13″ baking dish and spread around bottom of pan. Place 6 corn tortillas on bottom of baking dish and spoon more sauce over them, spreading to cover. Alternate each layer with the cheese, veggie blend, shredded chicken (be sure to strain the chicken out of the sauce it is cooking in, so it doesn’t get too watery), curry sauce and tortillas. Be sure to finish the final two layers with sauce and then cheese.

8. Place into oven and cook for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly. When finished take out of oven and let sit to cool for a minute or two. Slice, garnish and serve.

I’ve been meaning to get this post written all week, however, I’ve been rather busy. Oh wells, life goes on.

The other night we were craving some brownies. I typically insist on making them homemade, because I’m a purist like that (and they are JUST as easy to make with less artificial ingredients), but I happened to have a gluten free Bob’s Red Mill brownie mix in my cupboard that could afford to be used. To my horror we were out of eggs though, so I made the trek down to the store to get some more. I was in luck because they had free range vegetarian fed eggs on sale – two cartons for $5. I don’t see that pricing very often around here for non-conventionally raised eggs, so I obliged and picked up two cartons even though there are only two of us who hardly eat our weight through eggs in a typically week. I figured somehow I was going to find a way to use up these eggs even if it required a week of nothing but deviled eggs. Heh. I’m not that evil.

Enter good idea #1: Quiche. I have to say that I haven’t had many affectionate feelings towards quiche, although I have tried my darn hardest. I like the little mini ones that my mom used to make when she owned a tea shop years ago, but the moment you start talking the 9″ pie sized quiches I get a different idea in my head. It isn’t that the idea of buttery pastry and egg-y filling with delicious mix ins are the issue – it is more the texture of said egg-y filling that I haven’t been a fan of. The large ones always seemed to have a “watery” texture, and I wasn’t sure if that was a consequence of not baking properly, not baking long enough, or using fillings that give off too much juice during baking which ensued an undesirable “watery” texture.

That said, my idea of quiche was transformed a few years ago when I was a starved college student held up at Tea Zone in Portland (If you live in the Portland, OR area you MUST check it out – it’s an awesome tea shop/lounge in the Pearl District). I don’t know if my long hours of studying translated into some type of self-induced hallucinations when I must have quite mistakenly ordered a quiche (or perhaps I thought I had ordered a crumpet, or scone). Either way, no harm nor foul was done to me through subsequent bites (ne scarf-age) of decadent buttery pastry and light egg-y goodness. Quite the opposite actually. My delightful experience with Quiche Lorraine from Tea Zone entirely changed my outlook on quiche.

BEWARE: This recipe or a visit to Tea Zone may just change your mind about quiche as well. So, If you are quite happy hating on quiche, then you better be on your way. Shoo!

My husband wasn’t too thrilled at first mention that I wanted to make quiche for dinner. That’s ok, I pushed ahead. Besides, I knew I could change his mind, and I had eggs to use up damn-it! After it came out of the oven and we dug into it, he was whistling a different tune and went back for seconds, or thirds… He just wasn’t thrilled to take it for lunch the next day so all his macho buddies could tease him about eating quiche (apparently it’s a girly meal). So moral of the story… it was pretty much amazing for dinner, as well as leftovers for lunch the next day, and brunch today! The whole time I was eating it – I elicited images of Julia Child, weird. I will definitely be making this meal again and probably serving it at my next brunch gathering with friends.

For my pastry dough purists out there.. I reluctantly have to tell you that I didn’t make my own pastry dough for this. I know, I know… the shock! the horror! I had a leftover pie shell in the freezer from my holiday pumpkin pies, so I used that instead. Plus, I don’t own a pretty quiche pan. But, that one shortcut alone made this an easy meal to throw together for a weeknight meal. I had bacon left from the gluten free/dairy free Potato Leek Soup I made a few days ago, as well as spinach and basil that I wanted to use up in this recipe. So now you see why my Quiche Lorraine was fortified with additional yummy goodness.

And now you have it.. the recipe. Make it, eat it, weep, and change a few people’s minds about quiche.

1. Take pie shell out of freezer. Prep ingredients above. Preheat oven to 375° and make sure oven rack is on center position.

2. Cook bacon in skillet until crisp. Take out of pan and place on paper towels. Drain bacon fat, but reserve about a teaspoon in pan (you will cook additional ingredients in this). When cool, crumble or chop up bacon.

Now you know I don't have fancy pans, but I can show an onion a good carmelization.

3. Heat pan with reserved bacon grease on medium heat. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook until carmelized, it should be light brown in color.

Caramelized onions meet Spinach. Acquaint yourselves.

4. Add fresh chopped spinach to pan and stir. Add a pinch of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper and stir. The little bit of salt will help draw the moisture out of the mixture so that it doesn’t make the eggs “watery”. Cook until leaves wilt and moisture cooks out. Add the nutmeg and stir.

5. Crack eggs into a medium sized bowl (or stand mixer) and add cream. Blend the eggs and cream together on low speed for about 15 seconds until it is well beaten. Mix in (by hand) the onion/spinach mixture, bacon, cheese, and basil. Add a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper.

6. Place pie shell on baking sheet. Pour egg mixture into pie shell. Tent the foil over quiche, making sure to cover the crust on all sides to keep your crust from burning during the baking process. Carefully place the baking sheet and quiche into oven (My egg mixture sloshed a bit, but at least it was on the baking sheet and not on my floor or oven).

7. Cook for 35 – 45 minutes. Check after 35 minutes. Quiche is done when egg mixture is set and doesn’t jiggle easily.

8. Take quiche out of oven and let sit for a few minutes prior to slicing and serving. You will notice that when it was in the oven the egg was fluffier, it should set a bit for a flatter top once it is cooling. Slice and garnish with chiffonade of basil or sliced green onion. I served this with a spinach salad.

It's not a load of crock! Your slow cooker loves you. And you'll love this soup!

Last night I had to work late and knew this ahead of time so I figured it was a good night to use our slow cooker. I happen to love using our crock pot and it makes me happy to see that so many other people are now loving theirs again by welcoming it back onto their kitchen counters with open arms. But if I need to try and validate to you why I love it so… well, it reads like a cheap romance novel.

Reason for crock pot love number 1: It cooks for me even when I don’t treat it well. When it’s not ever so sweetly being used by me, I am usually shoving it into the dark recesses of my kitchen cupboards.

Reason number 2: It’s a cheap date. I have never given it more than $5-$10 at any one time and it puts out enough for the two of us… for sometimes several days. Tell me who you can take out for that cheap and treat with such disrespect and force to do almost all the work in the relationship and you reap all the benefits? Yeah, my guess it’s the other way around.

I’ll stop now, because there are probably children in the room…

So now onto soup. 🙂

I had a couple of odd veggies still hanging around and some bacon that I was hoping to get used up this week. So with my meat and two veg (sorry, I can’t help myself), me and my crock pot made us some homemade potato leek soup. The soup turned out super (or rather, souper) yummy even though I decided to not add any cream, butter or milk to it. I had it in mind to keep it a little healthier while still being a comforting winter meal, so I made it a broth based soup. Also, did you notice that it is gluten and dairy free? You’re welcome. Just make sure that the broth base you use is such and everything will be okay. You could even make it vegetarian by leaving out the swine and using vegetable broth.

And speaking of broth… Likely if you don’t have any homemade stock lying around, you probably have to go to the cartons or cans, right? Well I have been using this super convenient and very affordable alternative to canned broth called Better than Bouillon. It is organic and free of MSG and according to my research on surefoodsliving.com is gluten free (but not dairy, corn or soy free). A jar costs under $5 and makes up to 38 8-ounce servings with it… that’s roughly 19 cans of broth which at about $1/can can get rather pricey. All you have to do is scoop out a teaspoon and add it to 8 oz. water. Yep, it’s that easy! This is a picture of what the label on the jar looks like so you you can find it for yourself.

I love using this stuff as an alternative to canned broth when I don't have homemade stock around

Below are the ingredients I prepped and put into the slow cooker and then I did something unimaginable… I plugged it in and turned the notch to ‘low’ and left it to occupy itself for about 7 hours. Yep that was it!

You really don’t need to measure any of this out, just start dumping things in the crock pot. It doesn’t mind… it can take a beating.

Servings: at least 4, but i’ll let you know in a few days when we’re done eating it

I’m not sure what it is with me and cooking gluten and/or dairy free lately, because it isn’t something that is compulsory for my health, however, I do feel pretty good when I eat this way. The last couple gluten and/or dairy free recipes that I posted have occurred by chance, and not at all through planning. Last night was one of those nights that I didn’t think I would create anything worth a damn in the kitchen, but I surprised myself. Yet again! We are nearing the end of our rations at this point and really need to get to the grocery store, but I am playing that game of trying to stretch as many meals out of what we have in the fridge. It’s quite a fun game, and something I have become pretty good at I must say. I think living on a budget has made me a better cook; a more resourceful steward, and definitely provided a stage for improvising ingredients when I need to use something up or don’t have something I want to use.

We have lots of half used veggies in our fridge right now (and of course fresh basil) that need to be used up in the next few nights. My hubby and I have been trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into our repertoire, so last night seemed like a good night to do that especially since it was Monday… ahem… Meatless Monday 😉

As I started cooking last night the only thing I knew was that I needed to use up some broccoli, a quarter head of cauliflower, a handful of some mini bell peppers, as well as some fresh basil. Recently I was informed through my Pinterest (and namely through the blog http://www.amateurgourmet.com on behalf of the Barefoot Contessa‘s book Back to Basics) that I have been cooking broccoli wrong my ENTIRE life! How could I be so ill informed?! I’ve always pretty much just steamed or sauteed broccoli and that was the extent of it… until now. Have you ever roasted your broccoli? Well, I gotta tell you… it is AMAZING! It caramelizes it and gives it a nutty flavor that beats all other water logged broccoli you’ve ever had to date! Armed with my new found broccoli cooking method, I hit the kitchen with my remaining veggies and got to roastin’.

After I started the rice and got the veggies into the oven to roast, I figured I would just pour some balsamic vinegar over the dish and call it good… but then inspiration came over me. (cue angels singing) I recalled that I had about a half cup of blueberries in a bowl in the fridge that I had been telling myself to make a smoothie with since I made pancakes over the weekend. Aha! Blueberry balsamic reduction sauce it is! Balsamic is a great vinegar to use with fruit and it reduces beautifully to create a wonderful fruity, slightly tangy sauce. Sidenote: In addition to using balsamic in this sauce, I often times put a tsp. or so into the fruit mixture when I do fruit crisps and it turns them from great to AWESOME – it’s something in the caramelization of the fruit.

The dish ended up with a lovely mixture of sweet, tangy, nutty, roasted flavors. The sauce along with the toasted walnuts for a nutty crunch and the fresh chiffonade of basil (I love to say that word, chiffonade, but let’s be real here.. it’s just shredded). You will hardly notice that you are missing meat! But… if relinquishing your rights to meat is a big deal for you, then by all means you better cook up some chicken or salmon with this meal…I would hate to see you famish. 🙂

Servings: I made enough for 2 and some leftovers for lunch

This is one of those meals that you can estimate measurements of the veggies.

Cooking Steps

2. Put water and rice in pan. Place on stove on High heat. Once water starts boiling, cover and reduce heat to low and cook about 20 minutes or until rice has absorbed all liquid.

3. Place broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper, onion, garlic in a foil lined roasting pan. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place in preheated oven and roast for about 20 minutes or until veggies have good roasted color.

4. While veggies and rice are cooking, start the Blueberry Balsamic Reduction Sauce. In a saucepan over medium heat add olive oil. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes until tender. Add blueberries and cook for 2 minutes, until skins are bursting. Add honey and balsamic vinegar and stir. Heat until mixture comes to a boil. In a glass cup, mix the cornstarch with the water and then add this into the pan. Reduce heat and cook uncovered so liquid reduces. Keep this on low while you prepare rest of meal.

5. Heat a pan on medium heat (I find a cast iron pan works well for this). Add roughly chopped walnuts to pan and toss for a few minutes until they are nice and toasted. (Make sure you keep an eye on this pan as they go from barely toasted to blackened in seconds… trust me, I know.) Take toasted nuts out of pan and set aside to cool

6. Chiffonade your basil (check out link for how to chiffonade). Once the veggies and rice are finished cooking plate on a dish and drizzle with the blueberry balsamic sauce. Garnish with chiffonade basil, toasted walnuts and (optional) feta cheese.

As one who grew up not eating fish very often, I sure love it as an adult. Not only is it yummy and versatile, it also cooks in record speed and is one of the most healthful animal protein sources that I know of. I love playing with sweet fruit flavors in my recipes and complimenting them with fresh herbs and spices. My favorite herb has got to be basil. Lots and lots of fresh FRESH basil. If it isn’t large quantities of garlic and onions, I am probably using fresh basil more than any other ingredient. I just wish I could keep my plant alive so I didn’t have to keep buying it at the store. I know, I know…Woah is me.

Just as I was finishing up my last post (Low Calorie Shrimp Jambalaya with Egg Noodles), I was trying to think of what I wanted to make for dinner next. I was feeling void of inspiration for a short moment. A cloud of anxiousness covered me…. suddenly I feared that my blog would only EVER (E-V-E-R!!!) have four posts (at least it’s more than the first blog I started). Ok, ok I am slightly embellishing the feeling I had. One thing that I love about cooking and food is that I am pretty much ALWAYS thinking about it, so it doesn’t take me long to come up with my next recipe (thus why I keep a notepad on my phone to keep notes of dishes I want to make). There is actually a running joke in my family that whenever we eat together, I have always said, “You know what we should have had?” It’s not that whatever we are ever eating isn’t worthy of praise and interest at that very moment, I am just always forward thinking and onto the next… meal.

And… back to the topic at hand. Fish.

Fish cakes are easy, yummy and a great way to mix up the normal fillet routine. You can use fresh or previously frozen fish in nearly any variety… salmon, cod, halibut, tilapia and lots more. Plus the ingredients you put into them can be changed up to suit your fancy, but you’ll definitely want to try my recipe to get you on your way to fish cake fanaticism. The slight sweetness of the pineapple coupled with the herby basil notes and then topped with the creamy lime cilantro dressing and crunch from the slaw make for a wonderful taste combination. The slaw also absolutely does not have mayo in it, because like you will soon come to know… I LOATHE MAYONNAISE! I find it vile and so gross, so I find ways around using it, or just don’t use it at all. You’re welcome, the calories weren’t welcome in this recipe anyways.

Oh, and did I mention this recipe is dairy free and gluten free! Yeah, well it is… so also healthier, so eat up!

If you buy fish when it is on sale or in the frozen fillets, you can save big money. We happen to buy almost all of our groceries at Grocery Outlet. Most people are amazed at that, because we certainly don’t survive off Ramen and Hamburger Helper in this house, that is for sure. We definitely are on a budget, and I am able to buy an assortment of fresh and frozen organic produce most of the time as well as wild caught fish for usually about half the price of normal grocery stores. I just love it there, and they have a fairly decent wine selection too.

Tools needed:

Food processor
Zester
Knife
Mandolin Slicer (optional – I don’t have one so I didn’t use it, but if you do it will make your life that much easier to thinly slice the cabbage into airy crisp goodness)

2. Plug in food processor. Scoop flesh of avocado into food processor, lime juice, cilantro, garlic and kosher salt and blend until smooth. Drizzle EVOO into processor until thinned enough that it can be mixed into slaw to dress cabbage. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly.

3. Scoop dressing out of processor and toss with shredded cabbage until covered. Place into fridge while assembling rest of meal.

7. Scoop out 1/4 cup of fish mixture and place into heated frying pan. Press the fish mixture down to form a patty. Cook about 1 minute each side. Take out and place on a plate with paper towels to soak up excess oil.

8. Plate fish cakes and top with a heavy helping of slaw. Enjoy!

Note: We made mashed potatoes seasoned with my cajun spice mix as the other side for this. These weren’t GF/DF, so I omitted them from the post.

Last night was Mardi Gras and we most definitely had a hankering for some jambalaya (us and well… every other American it seems). I have to say that in the past my experience with jambalaya has mostly consisted of a box mix which is full of lots of preservatives, salt, added calories and usually empty promises. We’ve had quite a bit of rice lately so I thought I would try out my own recipe this time and pour it over a helping of egg noodles as I have a few bags of this stashed around the kitchen and it was begging to be eaten.

This dish actually turned out much better than I anticipated. After I thumbed through my notes of what I used, I also figured it was pretty low calorie. The worst part of this dish is the egg noodles which you can definitely sub for something with less calories or just eat it without any added carbs. A cup of cooked egg noodles is about 220 calories, the jambalaya (shrimp, veggies, sauce) was probably under 100 calories, I figure (with my best google attempt). That means that a pretty large serving is still hovering under 350 calories. Not bad I’d say, not bad. The spice level was a perfectly balanced medium and not too spicy, although you can sure add more spice if you’d like. My hubs shies away from the spicy hot dishes, while I gobble them up, so I usually err on the side of less is more when more people that just myself are eating.

You will notice that I added cauliflower to this recipe. I certainly know that it isn’t an ingredient that usually makes an appearance in this dish, however I had it to use up and took my liberties to do so. This is a great dish to add any other random veggies you have lying around as the cajun spice mix will likely make it taste very good and you won’t notice you are eating veggies (if that is a difficult thing for you).

Combine these seasonings in a bowl and mix until combined. This recipe will create more than you will need for the whole recipe, but I suggest putting in an airtight container to use later in other cajun inspired dishes (chicken, fish, shrimp, veggies.. etc.)